Building a time machine . . . the Hitler quandry

Shiraz 4.99 · 16-12-2014 04:58PM #1

So I've done the impossible, built a machine to allow me travel back in time to Austria say 1890, I walk into his nursery & shot baby Hitler in the face.

Judge me, am I a baby murderer or a saviour of millions ?.
Is there a definitive answer ?.

DrumSteve · 16-12-2014 05:00PM

Are you back in time now?

What's the weather like?

fedor.2. · 16-12-2014 05:00PM

Go back an hour or so and start an original thread

allibastor · 16-12-2014 05:01PM

no,

You should watch the film looper on that also.

Also, the logical thinking on it is it wouldn't matter.

You go back, shoot baby Hitler.
Baby Hitler never grows up.
You don't know who Hitler is, so don't build your machine.
You Don't go back and Shoot baby Hitler.
Baby Hitler grows up and Kills Millions.
You build your machine and go back and kill baby Hitler.
Etc.

Sheep Lover · 16-12-2014 05:01PM

Could you travel forward a few weeks and get me the winning Euromillons numbers also?

whiskeyman · 16-12-2014 05:02PM

Was there a clocktower in Austria that was struck by lightning, allowing you to return?

The One Doctor · 16-12-2014 05:03PM

If Hitler never existed then genuine grievances the German people had after WW1 (war reparations etc) would have come out some other way. There's a very good chance that you'd change European history for the worse.

Lord Trollington · 16-12-2014 05:03PM

I'd go back in time and sell all my junk on adverts.ie before they started charging.

Actually scrap that, I'd go back with lotto numbers, after winning I'd get a skip for all my junk.

iDave · 16-12-2014 05:03PM

And let Germany go commie and ally with the Soviets!!!!

Shiraz 4.99 · 16-12-2014 05:03PM

fedor.2. wrote: »

Go back an hour or so and start an original thread

What was the answer the last time ?

Leeleather · 16-12-2014 05:05PM

allibastor wrote: »

no,

You should watch the film looper on that also.

Also, the logical thinking on it is it wouldn't matter.

You go back, shoot baby Hitler.
Baby Hitler never grows up.
You don't know who Hitler is, so don't build your machine.
You Don't go back and Shoot baby Hitler.
Baby Hitler grows up and Kills Millions.
You build your machine and go back and kill baby Hitler.
Etc.

Nope, there would be a new timeline and no need to go back again and kill Hitler because he already did it.

The Backwards Man · 16-12-2014 05:05PM

You'd be a baby killer.

The end.

RobertKK · 16-12-2014 05:05PM

Shiraz 4.99 wrote: »

So I've done the impossible, built a machine to allow me travel back in time to Austria say 1890, I walk into his nursery & shot baby Hitler in the face.

Judge me, am I a baby murderer or a saviour of millions ?.
Is there a definitive answer ?.

Could you also kill Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim il Sung, Pol Pot and I am sure the list could go on...
I would blame the people responsible for the treaty of Versailles which was to humiliate Germany, and Hitler used that among other things to gain power.

allibastor · 16-12-2014 05:06PM

Leeleather wrote: »

Nope, there would be a new timeline and no need to go back again and kill Hitler because he already did it.

No, unless the persons memory didn't change.

Ruu · 16-12-2014 05:07PM

Just make sure they don't change 'Marathon' to 'Snickers'.

The_Valeyard · 16-12-2014 05:07PM

Why not show them a better path?

Help Hitler improve his art work, get him accepted into the Vienna academy of fine arts.
Then students could learn all about the art of Hitler, not the mass murdering megalomaniac from history.

DrumSteve · 16-12-2014 05:08PM

The One Doctor wrote: »

If Hitler never existed then genuine grievances the German people had after WW1 (war reparations etc) would have come out some other way. There's a very good chance that you'd change European history for the worse.

TBF, Im not sure how much worse it could have got.

Leeleather · 16-12-2014 05:09PM

allibastor wrote: »

No, unless the persons memory didn't change.

Why would his memory change? He would have his memory outside the original timeline.

jimgoose · 16-12-2014 05:10PM

Strictly speaking by finagling around with Time for do-goodery reasons without adequate Ph.Ds in Quantum Whataboutery 'n'Hey, you've just forkbombed the Universe and sent the whole lot careering down the cosmic jacks-bowl of a spontaneously-formed ultramassive black hole. So that makes you worse than Hitler, even.

ScumLord · 16-12-2014 05:10PM

Hitler was just the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. If you watch films of his speeches his audience are egging him on shouting anti semitic rhetoric. Hitler jumped on that bandwagon and gave the people what they wanted.

Hitler was surrounded by other loonies too that where maybe crazier than he was.

If it wasn't for Hitler Germany may have never lost WW2 either, he pushed the German military past it's limits and ruined everything they did well in pursuit of his barmy plans.

smcgiff · 16-12-2014 05:11PM

allibastor wrote: »

No, unless the persons memory didn't change.

It would take a parallel world to exist, but Hitler would still have got up to his nefarious ways in some world.

Otherwise, as stated, there’s a paradox.

It's only conjecture as time travel to the past is not and will not be possible (there I said it!

)

allibastor · 16-12-2014 05:12PM

Leeleather wrote: »

Why would his memory change? He would have his memory outside the original timeline.

Because that is the point, the only thing we count on is our memory. If we don't have written accounts of things we depend on memory, and if the OP changed the past, who is to say they wont remember things differently.

smcgiff · 16-12-2014 05:13PM

ScumLord wrote: »

If it wasn't for Hitler Germany may have never lost WW2 either, he pushed the German military past it's limits and ruined everything they did well in pursuit of his barmy plans.

Not to mention attacking Russia. It would have been a very different war if he hadn't - but that's a different thread.

Leeleather · 16-12-2014 05:13PM

allibastor wrote: »

Because that is the point, the only thing we count on is our memory. If we don't have written accounts of things we depend on memory, and if the OP changed the past, who is to say they wont remember things differently.

Because they are no longer in the present, they are at the point in time where the timeline changes so they have memory of the previous timeline.

Manach · 16-12-2014 05:16PM

Give the teen Hitler an arts scholarship.
That was the premise of one scifi story.
So the world gains one painter and losses a dictator.

The Backwards Man · 16-12-2014 05:17PM

Manach wrote: »

Give the teen Hitler an arts scholarship.
That was the premise of one scifi story.
So the world gains one painter and losses a dictator.

You would still have The Treaty of Versailles and reparations though. Back to square one we go.

allibastor · 16-12-2014 05:18PM

Leeleather wrote: »

Because they are no longer in the present, they are at the point in time where the timeline changes so they have memory of the previous timeline.

See that's the thing though, would memory stay the same or would it change.

Unless we travel in time we will never know.

AndonHandon · 16-12-2014 05:18PM

It's more plausible that you could transfer into an alternate dimension where Hitler does not exist than travel back in time.

Hitler had the backing of the German people, many of whom are still alive today and/or had children who they heavily influenced who themselves are definitely alive today.

fedor.2. · 16-12-2014 05:19PM

Just go back a bit earlier, kill his mother before she gets pregnant, problem solved

Dravokivich · 16-12-2014 05:23PM

Shiraz 4.99 wrote: »

What was the answer the last time ?

We wouldn't have the Volkswagen Beetle.

The Backwards Man wrote: »

You would still have The Treaty of Versailles and reparations though. Back to square one we go.

Then we must make sure Franz Ferdinand doesn't get assassinated. Unfortunately it means that band would only of had a different name.

smcgiff · 16-12-2014 05:24PM

fedor.2. wrote: »

Just go back a bit earlier, kill his mother before she gets pregnant, problem solved

Or convert the family to Protestantism - give them a box of French letters. Millions saved.

Building a time machine . . . the Hitler quandry

Comments